Best 42 Macon barrel lengths?

[hawkeye2]

I picked up a rough 42 and an thinking of doing a Macon smoothbore conversion. The barrel is currently a little over 36" with a bead sight drilled through the wall and screwed in at 35 7/8". I could leave it at the current length and file the sight down. It would be legal but I regard the sight as a potential failure spot and would like to eliminate it unless I were to line the barrel, something I would like to avoid. That leaves 30" and 34" the question is which of those do you prefer and why? The 30" length is more appealing but will it shoot as well as the 34"?

[ms3635v]

Have the barrel relined since you will have a hole in the barrel for the bead front sight and shorten it to 34".

[PoorJack]

IIRC, mine is about 28". Anyway, it comes up to just above belt level on me and is very well balanced, handles very well and much quicker than a full length 1842.

[John Bly]

You are allowed + or -1/2" on the barrel length so you could trim the barrel to get rid of the sight. Barrel length is a personal preference. Many like the 30" because of the fast loading and at 25 yds in a team match it doesn't give up much to a longer barrel. They suffer some at 50 yds. Some like the full length H&P with sights and would shoot no other. My gut feeling would be to make it a 36" version as a good compromise.

[MR. GADGET]

One of each for sure. That is the only way to go.

That said I own one of each. I shoot a full length. I have been just as fast and shoot better with full length.

[John Holland]

Hawkeye2 - For whatever length you decide upon, I wouldn't arbitrarily sleeve it without trying it first. Unless, of course, the bore is too heavily pitted to begin with. Like John Bly noted, a "36" barrel requirement will pass inspection at 35.5", but no less.

[Maillemaker]

Teammate of mine has one of those Macons made out of an Armisport. Not sure how long it is, but both this and mind shoot awesome with 70 grains 3F Goex with an RCBS .678 round ball roughed up and dipped in Alox. I think the short one shoots as well as my long one.

One day I want to make a Macon. Might be good for my daughter to shoot, too.

Steve

[bobanderson]

I started with a 30" Armisport Macon and was lucky enough to get an Elka .678 mould to go with it. Shot the heck out of it, including going 8 for 8 in the inaugural sesquicentennial Smoothbore Demonstration match. Because I couldn't hit literally ANYTHING at 50, I sold the Macon and bought an H&P with a Hoyt liner and luckily, another Elka mould.
There is a size difference between the Italian repros (.690 bore) and the Hoyt reline jobs (.687) mostly because the tooling isn't readily available to ream a .690 bore. (It's cheaper to buy an 11/16" reamer.) Anyway, I bought an original 42 rifle (possibly a Fremont?) and made another 30" Macon with a Hoyt liner that matches the bore on my H&P. The plan, which worked perfectly, was to have two guns that shoot the same ammunition so that my grandson, Owen, could compete in the team smoothbore events and I didn't have to create and carry a different smoothbore load. I do prepare a 50 yard load for the Macon by bumping the powder charge which is working very well for Owen.

Steve, your daughter will probably do very well with a Macon, but I'd drop that powder charge to about 40 grains of Goex Old Eynsford 3f. In my experience, you don't need the big charges in a smoothie. Ball prep and a powder that doesn't produce hard fouling is the secret to making these things run. For 3 years now, I've been shooting our smoothbores with NO LUBE and have had no problems loading and shooting long strings.

[hawkeye2]

First I have no intention of sleeving the barrel, this is going to be a cheap build. I did a detailed look at the barrel and the ramrod pipe was welded to the barrel and cutting it at 34" won't remove that so 30" it is. I have (someplace) the forearm off an 1835 dated musket from the middle of the lock area forward that I think I can use to repair this stock and I'll need a band spring, front band, a couple of lock screws and probably a tumbler now that I have the lock out (all repro parts). It's my intention to put this in safe shooting condition and be able to get an SAC card if I ever decide to try it on the range. Looks like I've answered my own question. Thanks to everyone though.